


A Safety Net, Unseen

by The_Mouse_of_Anon



Series: Emergency Fics [14]
Category: Young Justice (Cartoon)
Genre: Body Dysphoria, Coming Out, Gen, justified worry about transphobia, trans boy Bart
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-08-09
Updated: 2019-08-09
Packaged: 2020-08-13 22:29:53
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,698
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20181763
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/The_Mouse_of_Anon/pseuds/The_Mouse_of_Anon
Summary: If Wally dying hadn't been stressful enough for Bart, there was the additional stress of running out of his unique blend of hormone-suppressors and testosterone. If he was being logical, he had to tell someone he was trans to get his supply restocked so he could stop using half-doses. The problem was, he had no idea if it was safe to tell anyone...





	A Safety Net, Unseen

**Author's Note:**

> The 14th of my emergency fics, and the return of trans boy Bart yet again! The request for this one was a coming out story for trans Bart that ended well because the person had been about to come out to their family, but didn't because a lot of them were turning out to be super transphobic. I got to bring out my Tim feels, and this is the end result. n.n

Bart was pacing. This wasn’t good. This was _so_ not good. He’d thought things had been moded when Jaime was on mode and he’d been worrying that despite everything he’d done that things would go the way they had in his original time. But things had been stopped, Jaime had gotten off mode, the Reach had been driven off-planet, it was good! Except now it wasn’t.

Wally was dead. That hurt in the worst way. Especially since Wally originally hadn’t died until Bart was 8. Bart had already had several breakdowns over that fact, but this… This was just one more blow. The unique blend of hormone-suppressors and testosterone that he’d cut down to half-doses since about a week after he’d arrived in this time was getting close to running out. Being a speedster, he needed the low level of testosterone— well, low level for _him_— in order to push his body in the right direction. Some speedsters developed at a ‘normal’ pace; for others it was like puberty hit them like a truck (from what older-Wally had told Bart, that had been the case with him), so Bart hadn’t been willing to risk it. The half-doses had at least made his supply last longer, but Bart couldn’t deny the fact that he wasn’t completely flat-chested anymore. The idea of what that development foreshadowed was like a nightmare. He stopped his pacing and dropped to sit beside his bed to look his supply over again.

“Four… Five… _Damn it!_” he hissed as he counted out the remaining half-doses. There were fifteen small circular containers in all, almost like small pill-cases— not ideal for holding his hormones, but it was all that the resistance had been able to pull together that had an air-tight seal to safely contain his hormone supply— and most of them were empty. A little over five, not quite enough for six doses, likely due to having been in a small panic when he’d originally reorganized his supply. Memories of the small spill caused by his shaking hands haunted him. He couldn’t go through having a period. He _couldn’t_.

Okay then. Breathe. He could do this. Logical solution was that he needed his supply extended. Easiest way to get his supply extended was to have someone create his supply… which meant having to tell someone that he was trans. Honestly, that thought _terrified_ him. There was a lot about 2016 that Bart didn’t know, but one thing he did know was that things for trans people weren’t good. Not the worst they had been, but still bad enough that people were dying for being trans.

He had no idea how anyone would react.

He had no idea who to talk to, how to even go about telling them, or who he could trust to _not_ react negatively. Sure, the others on the team did the hero thing and were good people (_obviously_), but he had no idea if they would start treating him differently or if he might be driven off the team. Older-Wally had always insisted that Barry never would have disowned Bart for being trans, but now that there was the possibility Bart couldn’t help but panic over the idea. But he had to tell _someone_ or he was going to be looking at having his body doing things it had _no business doing_.

So who?

…

…

…

“I’m gonna die,” Bart groaned. And of course that was exactly when someone knocked on his door. He scrambled to scoop up his supply in one hand. “Just a minute!” he called out. Not good, not good, _not good!_

“Bart, are you okay?” Ohhhhh boy it was Tim. Would Tim freak out? Bart had no idea. Should he tell Tim? Come to think of it, what good would telling Tim do? Maybe Bart needed to just forget about telling anyone— “Bart?”

“Uh- coming! Just one- _shit_!” Bart dove to catch the container for one of his doses that had slipped from his hand and hit the floor. Hard.

Clearly that was enough for Tim to decide not to wait and just go ahead and open the door. Peeking around the edge of the door he said, “Are you o-?!” He cut off, freezing the moment he saw the syringe on Bart’s bed in plain view and Bart on the floor with a handful of small containers.

“Thisisn’twhatitlookslikeIswear!” Bart blurted.

Tim leaned back out in the hall and looked one way then the other before stepping into Bart’s room and closing the door. He turned to Bart and quietly hissed, “Bart, what is this? Because I _know_ what it looks like, but I’m hoping I’m wrong.”

What did it look like? It couldn’t look like what it was, Bart knew that much, so what did— Bart’s eyes widened as it clicked. Oh. _OH._ Yeah, this had to look like Bart was doing drugs or something. _Not good._ “Um, yeah, aboutthat. There’sthisfunnything, you know, andIwasjust- oh god please don’t tell anyone!”

Tim frowned. “Bart. What’s going on?”

Bart nervously gnawed on his lower lip for a moment or two as he sat up. There was no way around it. Either he admitted what his supply was, or he had to make something up— and with the way things had been going he had a feeling that Tim would catch him in a lie sooner rather than later. He swallowed nervously, then said with an awkward squeak, “Um… Surprise, I’m trans?”

Tim blinked, an eyebrow raising in a completely baffled expression. “Wait a second. Wha- Oh.” He frowned.

Bart fidgeted, uncertainty gnawing at his gut. “…Tim?”

“…That’s your hormone supply from your time?” The fact that Tim sounded so calm about it was _weird_.

“Uh… Yeah?” Bart fidgeted again. “You’re not… You’renotbotheredbythefactthatI’mtrans?”

Somehow Tim was able to piece apart what Bart had said. “Why would I be?”

“…Andyou’renotbotheredbythefactthatI’malreadyonhormoneseventhoughI’monly14?”

Tim blinked. “You’re gonna have to repeat that a little more slowly.”

Bart raked a hand through his hair and gave a heavy sigh. “You’re not bothered by the fact that I’m already on hormones?”

Tim shrugged. “You’re a speedster. According to medical records puberty hit fast for Wally, so it makes sense that it might hit fast for you. So it also makes sense that with you being trans that you would try to control that as soon as possible.”

Bart didn’t know whether to be confused or disturbed. “…You looked at Wally’s _medical records_?”

“He got poisoned once and Dick had to do first aid. It was bad enough that it made Dick paranoid, so he completely looked over Wally’s medical record so he’d have a better idea of how to handle it if anything like that ever happened again. I only saw part of it while I was passing by.”

There was a long moment of silence, then Bart said, “…Your family is terrifying. I hope you know that.”

Tim didn’t laugh, but he couldn’t keep the smile from his face. “You’ll get used to it.”

Bart shook his head. “The fact that you’re used to it scares me.”

That _did_ pull a laugh from Tim (though it was a small one). Brushing aside Bart’s disbelief, he calmly asked, “How long until your supply is out?”

“…The fact that you’re so relaxed about this whole thing when I heard that this time _sucked_ for trans people is kind of weirding me out,” Bart admitted.

Another shrug. “You’re still you. It’s not like you’re any less of a guy because of it.”

Bart definitely hadn’t expected that simple statement. He hadn’t expected anyone to _get it_. He absolutely hadn’t expected Tim to treat it as a simple fact. “…Why do you want to know how long until my supply is out?”

“You’re going to need more. Easiest way to set that up and meet your needs is through the League doctors. I know how much longer you have, then I know how much of an emergency it is, and I can talk Batman into fast-tracking it.” …Had Tim just admitted to being willing to manipulate his _dad_? Would it be considered manipulation? Bart had no idea.

“Are you telling me that _Batman_ will help make sure I get the hormones I need?”

Tim looked somewhat amused. “Bart, just to give you an idea, Bruce Wayne completely covers all trans-related health care for Wayne Industries employees. Making things easier for you would be normal for him.”

Bart thought that over for a moment or two. This was… weird. Good, but weird. He looked at the pile of small containers in his hands. No more half-doses, no more having to worry about running out, but there was still one thing… He looked back to Tim. “You’re officially going to be my backup while I’m telling anyone else. You’re going to back me up, and if anyone gets nasty I’m hiding behind you.”

“Conner would be a better shield you know.” Tim was definitely edging toward laughing again.

“You have the Bat-glare! No one can stand against the Bat-glare!”

“Okay, I’ll be your backup,” Tim laughed. “Though I doubt you have to worry about anyone on the team or in the League.”

Bart huffed and opened the drawer of his bedside table to set his supply and the syringe inside before closing it again. “Alright. Good. Let’s get this over with before I feel like dying.”

“…Do you want to tell everyone at once? Or just one-by-one?”

“…Batman and Barry first,” he said decisively as he headed for the door. He paused. “…I’m gonna die.”

“I promise you won’t die.”

“If I die, make sure I at least look good at my funeral.”

Tim rolled his eyes. “I don’t think you’re going to die. You might want to bury yourself in a hole, but I don’t think you’ll die.”

As they walked out into the hall Bart asked, “How do you think Barry’s going to react?”

“Knowing what I know about him? You might get smothered by Barry and Iris being protective for a while.”

(It turned out later that both older-Wally and Tim were right. Bart didn’t think the situation could have been more crash, even if it was a little overwhelming.)


End file.
